Yorkshire's chief executive, Stewart Regan, is confident Headingley's relaid outfield will prove its mettle as England and Australia brace themselves for further rain disruption to the Ashes series.

Rain was falling again in Leeds today, as it has for the much of the past month, and painful memories of the abandoned one-day international between England and West Indies in May, when Headingley's new £600,000 drainage system could not cope with a deluge, have already encouraged predictions of another drawn Test.

But punters attracted by the odds about a draw should pause for thought. When Headingley's skies are clear, a once-machiavellian pitch becomes one of the most benign in the country. It is when summer rain threatens and the skies glower that a Yorkshire Test can rush along at a headlong pace. It would not take too many sessions on a classic Headingley day, with the ball swinging lavishly, to demand that England do more than just cling on until the finishing line.

Regan insists the new outfield will this time do its stuff in allowing the maximum amount of play. "We are in very good shape for the Test," he said. "We have had an 80% improvement in infiltration rates – the speed that water flows through the outfield – since that one-day international. We are confident that we are much better placed than before the outfield was relaid to cope with the worst an English summer can throw at us."

Chris Wood, the England and Wales Cricket Board pitches consultant, has been a regular feature at Headingley in recent days, and there are no signs of concern emanating from ECB headquarters. The groundsman, Andy Fogarty, has also yet to be submerged by pessimism in the manner of his Edgbaston counterpart, Steve Rouse, when he suffered similarly unrelenting rains in Birmingham.

Yorkshire suffered fierce criticism for the cancellation of the one-day international. The rain was exceptional, and would have forced an abandonment everywhere with the possible exception of Lord's, but the sight of pools of water lying on an immature outfield which had still not been verti-drained – deeply spiked to assist drainage – made criticism inevitable. Regan even faced a few stray, disgruntled calls from within Yorkshire for his resignation, although in that he is hardly alone as Yorkshire have yet to win a championship match all season and the mood around these parts is increasingly restless.

He has since armed himself with rainfall data from the Met Office. "I now have figures that prove that 60% of rainfall in Leeds in May fell in the 24 hours before that match," said Regan. "That is a fact that should not be overlooked."

Some have looked at an unsettled forecast and suggested that this series increasingly resembles 1953 when England regained the Ashes with a 1–0 win. After four tense, rain-affected draws, England took an attritional series with victory in the final Test at The Oval. It was the spin pairing of Tony Lock and Jim Laker who eventually held sway but before then it had been a summer of Alec Bedser, who revelled in the damp conditions to take 39 wickets, and of "Barnacle" Trevor Bailey.

Much has changed in the intervening years, notably the standards expected from England's ever-growing number of Test grounds. Regan is keenly aware that the success of Cardiff's inaugural Test has "raised the bar'' and that Headingley, with its new pavilion still incomplete, is somewhat vulnerable. Attention will not be solely focused on the outfield.